Un unexpected aspect of equity: how the institutional proximity born within ‘North-South fair trade’ contributed to help French agriculture to cope with major contingent crises?

Consumers worldwide are increasingly becoming aware of social, economic, and environmental consequences of their consumption and are modifying their preferences, attitudes, and behaviors accordingly. One significant movement that has influenced consumption patterns globally is that of fair trade (Gillani et al. 2021). In this article, in examining a French case study, we demonstrate that institutional proximity is crucial for empowering relationships between consumers and producers in a fair trade framework. North- North fair trade has recently developed by applying the same principles as those of traditional North-South fair trade by reinventing not only the unbalanced relationship between consumers and producers but also by creating a space that is shared to varying degrees: institutional proximity.